Charley Crockett
Charley Crockett is a Texas singer-songwriter who busked for years before releasing his first album at thirty-one, in 2015. In the following decade he put out close to twenty albums of original songs and covers drawing on country, blues and soul. He was the Americana Music Association’s Emerging Act of the Year in 2021 and earned Grammy nominations for $10 Cowboy and Dollar a Day.
Born in San Benito, Texas, in 1984, he grew up in Los Fresnos and in Dallas, and spent summers with an uncle in the French Quarter of New Orleans. As a teenager he played on the streets of the French Quarter and of Deep Ellum in Dallas. He then traveled by hitchhiking and freight train, and by 2009 he was busking in New York City, followed by stretches in Northern California and abroad.
Back in Texas, he self-released A Stolen Jewel in May 2015 and In the Night in 2016. The cover albums he bills under the side name Lil’ G.L., Lil G.L.’s Honky Tonk Jubilee (2017) and Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza (2018), sat between albums of originals: Lonesome as a Shadow (2018), The Valley (2019) and Welcome to Hard Times (2020). Field Recordings, Vol. 1 (2020) was a lo-fi collection of covers and originals made with his friend Kyle Madrigal. He released most of this work under his own Son of Davy imprint through Thirty Tigers.
In 2021 he released 10 for Slim: Charley Crockett Sings James Hand, a tribute to the singer James “Slim” Hand, and Music City USA. That September the Americana Music Association named him Emerging Act of the Year. Lil’ G.L. Presents: Jukebox Charley and The Man from Waco followed in 2022, and Live from the Ryman in 2023. $10 Cowboy (April 2024) brought his first Grammy nomination, for Best Americana Album, and a companion album, $10 Cowboy, Chapter II: Visions of Dallas, came out that July.
In January 2025 he signed with Island Records, ending his Thirty Tigers partnership. His label debut, Lonesome Drifter (March 2025), co-produced with Shooter Jennings, was his fifteenth studio album by his own count. Dollar a Day followed in August 2025 and was nominated for Best Traditional Country Album at the 68th Grammy Awards. Age of the Ram came out in April 2026, and Clovis later that month.
